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Monday, 29 December 2014

Just a quick post here as I am sharing how I made this card over at A Vintage Journey today. I have used distress paints in different ways to create the different layers of the card. I do hope you will pop over.

My background was created with Iced Spruce and brushed pewter distress stains - it is far more sparkly than the photo shows. I stamped my images and got to work on my holly and berries. I had die cut the holly onto white card and began altering with various green paints before adding some crackle paint. The berries were painted red and crackle accents added.

My stars were painted with iced spruce DP before being given the crackle treatment as well. My sentiment is a remnant rub.

Wednesday, 24 December 2014

Hello and thanks for stopping by. I hope you are not rushing around doing last minute preparation (if you are you probably are not reading this!).

A little messy card today (with a bit of a mistake too!) for the Clarity Challenge where the theme is trees. I thought I would go autumnal rather than Christmas.

Here is a quick summary of the process:

1. Texture paste through clarity stencil onto card

2. Once dry added gesso and let dry

3. Add and marble various distress paints - allow to dry or heat

4. Sand back with paper or sanding block

All going well at this point!

5. Stamp trees and words onto tissue paper and once dry carefully glue onto background......still going well. At this point I got impatient and decided to apply heat - not a good idea as the tissue under the words buckled and stiffened as you can see.

I have a scheduled post tomorrow for my final Country View Crafts project of 2014 - I will be somewhere on the M25 travelling to family!

So Merry Christmas from me, thank you for your visits and wonderful comments in 2014. It has been my first year as a crafter and blogger and it has been great fun and lovely to 'meet' (albeit virtually in most cases) so many people.

Monday, 15 December 2014

Another little card to share today using tarnished brass distress stain and spray background. My poinsettia is coloured with festive berries DS and sprinkled with various embossing powders. (I seem to be doing that a lot at the moment..).

Sunday, 14 December 2014

The creative guides at A Vintage Journey decided to do a gift exchange - a Secret Santa. We each received the name of one of our teamies to create something for and then received something in the post! We only knew who it was from when it arrived - I love surprises. Firstly I will show you what I made and then what I received.

I made a gift for the very talented Jools Robertson - do pay her blog as visit - she creates the most stunning work. I decided to make Jools a box and off course, fill it with chocolates.

Frankie wanted to join in the fun - Jools - I didn't give you these!

I started by taking some kraft resist card for my box, cutting to shape and inking the edges.

I then took some paper from one of Tim's paper stashes (they have fallen apart so I don't know which is from which stash anymore!) and began stamping and stencilling. The papers were cut to size to fit the lid and sides of the box.

I die cut some circles from chipboard and treated them with various distress paints and ink through the stencil.

To make it personal to Jools, I die cut a J and coloured with paint before adding crackle paint.

Here are each of the sides:

So that is my little chocolate box for Jools!

And now here is what I received, wow - this is so amazing. My gift is from Julie from Juliz Design Post. It rather puts mine to shame!

The Christmas tree decoration was beautifully packaged in the stunning box and accompanying tag and card. It is just gorgeous. Julie will be showing more details on her blog today.

Thank you Julie - I adore it!

Sorry a long post today. Do hop over to A Vintage Journey to see what everyone else made and received!

Friday, 12 December 2014

It is time for another challenge at A Vintage Journey - Let's Celebrate. The theme can be focussed on Christmas but any celebration is fine - maybe a birthday, anniversary or New Year project. I have chosen to use Tim Holtz blueprints stamps for these relatively quick and easy cards.

For the Christmas tree, I started by stamping my image and then colouring in with distress stains.

I added some subtle background interest with a script and speckles stamp - making sure these were second generation stamps.

For the snowman I followed a similar process but this time used distress inks and my water brush.

Got to love how easy it is to create a card with these blueprint stamps - I fear I may have to purchase some more!

Wednesday, 10 December 2014

Back in April I made a little hanging from chunky ATC's - the post is here. It has been on the wall of my study out of sight of the world, so I decided to give it a makeover! Over at the Artist Trading Post and The Mirror Crack'd the theme is to recycle - so I am hoping they will allow a recycled project! At Our Creative Corner it is Christmas ATC's.

Original project:

Strip it down.....

Then lots of star and snowflake die cuts, some gesso, black paint, lots of treasure gold and the base of my Christmas decoration was done. I then added the poinsettia, '25' and 'Peace' die cuts. The 25 and Poinsettia are coloured with festive berries DS before stamping with a script stamp and then various embossing powders sprinkled over for texture and a bit of sparkle!

I also coloured the original hessian with tarnished brass DS and the driftwood with gilding wax.

I have hung my little decoration in the hall now - so others may see it. I use the word hall loosely - it sounds so posh - I mean the little cubbyhole you come in from the front door!

Tuesday, 9 December 2014

At Try it on Tuesday the new theme is Winter Whites. I took the Tim Holtz snowman and cut him out before mounting on white card embossed with dots. I die cut a poinsettia and added lots of clear rock candy distress glitter. A few branches, a sentiment and some inky edging finished my card.

As I write this I have been adding up how many Christmas cards I have made so far and am a little shocked to realise I may have enough to send to friends and family - yea!! It won't stop me making a few more though I am sure.

Sunday, 7 December 2014

I just wanted to share this shadow box with you today. I take no credit for the idea or the design but I did make this one!

I was due to attend the Country View Crafts workshop recently where Brenda Brown was teaching this project. Unfortunately I couldn't attend but Brenda kindly showed me what I missed last week (we live close by).

I just love it and I have it up in my lounge. The photo's aren't great as they are taken through the glass of the shadow box. If you know Brenda's work you will know she is a detail expert and just about everything is altered in some way.

Brenda has lots of workshops planned at Country View Crafts in 2015 - I hope to make them. The dates are on the CVC Project blog if you are interested - here.